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Fintan Hourihan, chief executive of the Irish Dental Association, is set to tell the Oireachtas Health Committee today, that not only will the new policy fail, but it will be “catastrophic for patients in lower socio-economic areas with high treatment needs”.

Does Ciarán Cuffe think he’s emulating De Rossa’s famous poster with the Pigeon House chimneys?

On his poster, Cuffe’s face is sandwiched between the Beckett Bridge ‘harp’ and the Convention Centre tilted ‘pint glass’.

Two problems. One, De Rossa gave enough space on his poster for his symbol of Dublin to be seen, for the viewer to make the connection. Two, De Rossa didn’t pick a cliche that is over use by international financial firms. If De Rossa had been as imaginative as Cuffe is, sure wouldn’t the Ha’penny bridge have done?

To give an example of how this works, one of the Brexit Party’s major media strategies is to accentuate its apparent novelty: its defiance of left-right conventions above all. Now, this story is absolute bollocks. The Brexit Party is a small, far-right enterprise, with some Tory funders and right-wing newspapers backing it, whose MEPs are all ex-UKIP, and whose personnel are the usual fash-curious flotsam. And even this bollocks story is not new: UKIP pretended to be ‘neither left nor right’ for a period of time when Farage thought he was going to win Labour seats. Many journalists and academic bought it at the time. So, how to put a shine on this ordure? The answer was smart. Get the Koch brothers-funded Sp!ked chancers on board. They knew it would be impossible for the media to resist pointing out that these reactionaries were once known as the Revolutionary Communist Party. Job done. How could anyone doubt their diversity when they have even opened their doors to ‘communists’?

There is thus a real danger of capitulating to the mystique of such organisations, while appearing to criticise them. Labour’s strategy in the European elections, has been to define itself as the anti-Farage party, the party to “bring our divided country back together”. Now while this is rooted in Corbyn’s formally correct analysis that a culture war between Leavers and Remainers is stupid and will only benefit reaction, it is a questionable strategy. Far from offering a militantly left-populism to combat Farage’s right-populism, it looks anodyne, completely contrary to the insurgent spirit of 2017. The country doesn’t want to be brought back together, and Corbyn shouldn’t want to be the sort of politician who could bring it together. Besides, as much as Farage is a danger, it’s really not a good idea for Labour to be talking up the polls which give the Brexit Party a lead. Those polls are a perfect example of how the media can be gamed, because they are picking up on short-term trends, surges of media attention and interest, which then go on to justify further interest. For that reason, any predictive value they have is limited to this: they might become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Vulliamy of the Guardian revealed the appalling conditions in Serb prison camps at Omarska and Tmopolje, Living Marxism declared that the journalists had faked the pictures. Fox and friends offered no defence of their story when ITN sued for libel. They did not recant when survivors gave testimony in the Hague or when mass graves were found near Omarska. Last year the journalists who run London’s Frontline Club considered inviting Fox to speak. Vulliamy insisted she apologise to the camp victims first, but Fox refused to back away from the modem equivalent of holocaust denial. Naturally, the BBC thinks she is the ideal person to have as a regular panellist on the Moral Maze.
To be fair to Farage, he has never endorsed bullying children, indeed he broke down when describing how his own children had been bullied. He may have won the Brexit referendum by demonising East European immigrants but he has never covered up their murder. And although he endorses Orbén, he has yet to act as propagandist for Balkan strongmen who have been convicted of crimes against humanity.
The question is not how Fox can bear to be in the same party as Farage, but how Farage can bear to be in the same party as her.”

really have doubts about these local elections; is this just voting for a local bottleneck being put in place that/to limits the queries that need to be asked and addressed from all local persons. also, I really reckon if there should not be a second term at all; as local councillors only want to address the most popular questions and the questions that will secure them popularity and secure for them extra votes. this effectively screens out some potentially unpopular and incisive queries.
and maybe four meetings per year should be for the general public to put local questions.

Nico Cué sounds like an interesting Spitzenkandidaten candidate by the European Left group – born in Asturias under Franco, his family fled to Belgium, and he has a strong trade union record. Will feature in the TV debate from 8 tonight on RTE News Now:

” the party needs a clear answer to the Brexit question. Until it gets one, it is wholly reliant on the new electoral split on the right of politics to come to power….
While pro-Corbyn web outlets and bloggers fulminate against Starmer and Watson, the massive changes in British politics seem to be passing Labour’s strategists by.
The Brexit Party is on a roll because some 30 per cent of Brits want to see a hard, xenophobic No Deal Brexit. This is the new reality. It is a case study in what Hannah Arendt called the “temporary alliance of the elite and the mob”. ”https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2019/05/labour-s-refusal-oppose-brexit-killing-it-doorstep-it-should-quit-talks

Irish Times Europe Editor Describes New IIEA Anti-Neutrality Paper as “Timely” and Describes Irish Neutrality as “Sacred Cow” https://wp.me/pKzXa-Kd
As Turkey is a member of NATO, he seems to think that Ireland should get involved in a military conflict between NATO powers !!! Patrick Smyth Continues:
“As Keatinge points out, there are strict limits to how far Ireland would go in defending a fellow member state which comes under attack.Whether that should be is another matter, but, as he points out in his dispassionate style, the changed political and strategic landscape that Ireland finds itself in warrants at least a re-examination of the ill-defined sacred cow of neutrality.”
CYPRUS ESCALATION COULD DRILL HOLE IN IRISH SACRED COW OF NEUTRALITY Patrick Smyth, May 16, 2019,

“In the first Gulf conflict of 1990-91 two notorious pieces of propaganda and misinformation greatly helped to rally support for the war by seeming to demonstrate the savagery and duplicity of the Iraqi government. The first was the appearance of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl before a US congressional committee to testify how, as a volunteer hospital nurse, she had seen Iraqi soldiers tip babies out of incubators and leave them to die on the floor. Her account was greeted with outrage until, some time later, it was revealed that the girl was the well-coached daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador in Washington who had never left the US during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait….

i have just been in to the local authority general office/motor tax/housing, etc. and i indicated to the young lady at the counter that there were circa. five or more people with their tickets waiting; whilst screened away, there were c.5 staff members in laughter and fits of giggles about the photocopier, holding up their mobile phones to each other.
‘oh, they are just at the photocopier’, the young lady said.
….. no allusion to the people waiting and who, imo opinion and experience, will be rapidly and incongrously rushed through.

And now we go to Episode Two of our comprehensive guide to the constituencies in the RoI local elections. Today we focus on the North Inner City Dublin constituency.
Six seats I think. Three SF candidates, 2 SocDem, 2 FF, 1 FG, 1 Lab, 1 WP, 1PbP, 1 Green, Burke Ind, Ring Ind, Flynn Ind. Interestingly no Gregory candidate ind.
If it is just six seats it’s a bit of a Group of Death, isn’t it?

But it’ll be well worth watching… how will Flynn of Inner City Helping Homeless do? How will Brien of PbP and from Constitution Hill do? Why no Gregory Ind candidate? Has Ryan of WP any chance of holding her seat? And if she doesn’t where do WP go from there? And not being ageist but Burke, Ring and Labour’s Costello are all oul’ lads – which of their careers, if any, will come to an end on Saturday week?

Just been for a two hour walk with the dog around the Cabra Glasnevin and North Inner City constituencies. There’s actually three FF candidates in NIC – Khurshid, McMorrow and Mohan. Absolute madness on their part! They have no councillor there and they put up three candidates. Contrast with FG who have one councillor and have put up just him as a candidate. FG will get one and FF none.
Wonder is it cuteness by Mary Fitzpatrick to make sure she has no potential rival for the GE whenever?

Before I went for that walk an SF canvasser was at the door. Looking for a number one for O’Farrell, their second candidate. The canvasser was a very nice lad, from New Zealand originally, folks from Belfast. His first words were “Are you interested in the election?” When I told him I was big time, he was delighted. “Most people aren’t” he said. I remember it was soul destroying when you were canvassing and getting one meh after the other as you went from door to door.
Anyway I told him I was hugely impressed with O’Farrell’s cv and with SF’s commitment to the peace process. I specifically referenced the “we reiterate our support for the PSNI” statement after the Lyra McKee murder. Then I told him that I still couldn’t vote SF cos of the 70s 80s and 90s. He was good, saying I might give them a preference. I said not this time but keep it up and maybe next time. Maybe.

Look, he came to my door so he has to take what he gets. In fairness, three or four elections ago I ripped up their leaflet in front of the canvasser and told them to get out of my garden. Progress. I don’t think I was unfair to yer man – he was happy to meet someone who was willing to talk to him. We agreed that when the demographics lead to a majority in the North for a UI, that the new arrangement has to give something to unionists in terms of their nationality and national allegiance.
But you have to get your money’s worth from whatever canvasser comes to the door. Believe it or not, Mitchel McLaughlin came to my door must have been 15 years ago and we had a great chat.
Maybe not stickie for life, but I can’t ever see myself voting for SF having lived through their ‘war’.

Definition of convergence – Joe softens on SF, SF move from militarism to left-nationalism lite…until suddenly a lower preference becomes a second preference…becomes a first???

I always had a golden rule: never vote for bourgeois parties. Problem is my definition of bourgeois parties keeps changing!! At least you guys have PR, I have to contend with the awful first-past-the-post for Westminster elections – now that would test any socialist’s ethical voting practices.

really losin’ the will to vote in these local elections. the devastating ignorance to queries asked of the clerks, to me seems like these clerks are just purchased voters themselves.
I really think if anyone takes a case against a local council, that the actual local Councillors themselves must be in court, as instigators of such case.
these local elections just seem like every voter is writing away, handing away their own personal bit of power to some: private gang, or organisation, or the privately ambitious; who then will be ‘oh soo busy’ that they will deliberately manage not to progress or inform of anything.

Passing through town, Dublin City Centre, I saw some quite political stuff written on a few Posters. Questions about McCabe and Tusla on Frances Fitzgerald. WQhile I figure vulgar abuse backfires, I thought these were legitimate questions. Saw Pesco raised on a FF poster. Maybe a newish way of intervening politically, especially with politicians not as open as they should be to public scrutiny.

The European election in May is a potential game-changer for the EU and its 500 million citizens. Huge numbers will be voting for decision-makers who champion positive change in Europe.

Europe is on the wrong track, but a better Europe is worth fighting for. A united Europe is our best chance to pull back the power of the far-right, limit corporation control, really tackle the climate crisis and address discrimination and rights violations, be it about women’s rights or immigration.

But Europe’s far-right extremists want to divide using fear and hate. Their next goal is the European Parliament. In the May election, they want to increase their power and dismantle the EU from within.

We will be disrupting this current political conversation of fear and hate by starting a new one focused on hope and change. Europe also needs to rein in the power of big business and put people before profit. The best thing we can do now is really engage in the European election so that the EU puts its original values – of rights, equality, solidarity and democracy – back into practice.

Well Said UNA MULLALLY IN IRISH TIMES Today!
Una Mullally: Eoghan Murphy needs to get real or get outhttps://wp.me/pKzXa-wc Previously one could say that maybe ministers were out of touch, or didn’t understand the experiences of a younger generation. But Varadkar and Murphy are that generation. Why don’t they care? The solutions to this crisis are staring Fine Gael in the face. Build more social housing. Build more affordable homes. They just don’t want to do it. Murphy and his department’s enthusiasm for doing anything but that simple solution, is getting more ludicrous and insulting by the day
On the eve of Saturday’s Raise the Roof housing protest in Dublin, Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy struck a tone-deaf note. Speaking on Newstalk, he said that “what we’re doing with co-living is bringing around another option, another choice for people”. “Co-living” is property business marketing language for high-density bedsits, a setting few aspire to live in. The privileged live in a world of options and choices. That is simply not the reality for those caught in the housing emergency. It’s time for Murphy to get real, or get out.
At the housing protest, the solidarity across all areas of Irish society was evident

Scandalous Anti-Human Savagery Implemented By Government including Ministers Finian McGrath, John Halligan and K. Zappone, Fianna Fail, in Backing Extremist Pro-Rich Housing Policy of FG and Varadkar-Paddy Healy
Well Said UNA MULLALLY IN IRISH TIMES TODAY! https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Una Mullally: Eoghan Murphy needs to get real or get out
Paddy Healy: Mcgrath and Halligan should do the same!